The only other thing that bothers me is the over reliance of alcohol in many cultures regions. In Italy why daily wine consumption would have made me a de-facto alcoholic by american standards. I've always been a pretty light weight drinker, but from Asia to Europe, it seems more inculturated to drink more and more often then back in the USA.

I think the Indonesia controversy is far from settled. What ISR or a principal at one of the elite schools "thinks" on the current situation ignores the reality that whatever stage the political process is in it isnt over yet, and is naive to think that whatever laws the indonesian government pass any schools would be exempted, it might work out that way, but no one really knows what will happen over the months to come, and the rule interpretation what ever the law does become isnt really going to be up to school admins to resolve, it will be in the hands of whatever ministry handles enforcement and administration of those laws.

Thats not really true, we could change the name of the USA if we REALLY wanted too.

The Bethesda fair is the "summer scramble" its the last minute, hard to fill, third tier job fair.
Third tier schools show up to cleanup the teacher candidate leftovers. Teachers who waited to long for their dream job. Those teachers who left their lasts school late in the year. Teachers who cant do any better, or have issues tend to find "something at the Bethesda fair.

You find schools from europe, mainly public or state funded schools that dont really know whos leaving and whos returning until late spring/summer (Spain, Italy, and Germany, mostly).
Every year theres some "surprise" schools, high tier one schools that have last minute recruiting. Though there arent as many.

The atmosphere is this weird quit desperation. Everyone knows this is the last chance but everyones trying to play it cool. You hear teachers say "Oh I have some options lined up" and youll hear recruiters say "Were still looking for the best candidate", but everyone knows that the start of school is weeks away, and this is it. Some people have gotten offered contract when signing up.

If your real mobile, and flexible, you can easily walk away with a job, though it may not be the job you want, or your ideal region. Couples dont do as well, because there usually arent vacancies for both, which means someones a trailing spouse. Recruiters are also hesitant with "new" families, as they usually just arent ready in time to leave. Thats a recruiters greatest fear really, that the teacher wont get on the plane. Lastly, most teachers are already committed one way or another by the time July is coming up, and recruiters often ask themselves (if not during the interview) why are you still looking? Still at a certain point a recruiter/admin needs to put someone in the classroom.

Except there is no country called "latin america". Latin America is a category of countries in a general geographic region. That would be like Canadians referring to themselves as americans because Canada is in North America.

I have to disagree with that assumption, as a lot of people in education (mainly the parent component of education), expect students to come out at the end with top grades in everything. The corollary to that is that at what ever level they went into the classroom with, if they dont come out with A's its some failure on the teachers part.

In the classroom grades drive everything, there are parents in parts of the world that expect high grades based solely on the fact that they are paying high tuition. To an owner of a school enrollment dictates tuition, and thats their everything.

I read the same burnout claim in several places, most recently on slate jobs, it dates back to a study done in 2001/2002 in the Journal of Organizational Behavior.

Very true, i just dont find many people who are bored enough who would put forth the energy to write a boring review.
I also dont know how useful they would be. How many times could you write and how many times a reader read could you see reviews that basically say "our admins are doing what theyre supposed to be doing and no problems to report"?
I always assume that unless there is something negative to report, that everything is otherwise fine. In that regard, no report is about as close to a good report as you will find.

I tip everywhere, money makes people happy, and happy people are more helpful people. The service industry is hard enough, and I feel its one of the really few benevolent aspects of american culture Im happy to "export".
Even in countries Ive been to such as Japan, I may not exactly tip, but Ill always leave the "change" left over from a bill.

I see the performance point, if you cant hack the job, the system fixes itself by removing you. Work environments and systems in that aspect are self repairing. Education isnt like that (at least not in international schools). You can fire teachers, but you cant fire students. If I have a poor performing student I cant fix the problem and repair the system by replacing the student, the expectation (and rightly so) is that Ill spend more time and work harder to grow and improve that student. Thats a stress you dont have in the corporate sector.

Actually a a bad review for a school sticks around a while. Usually the cause for a schools bad reputation can be fixed a lot easier and sooner then the reputation. Poor, admins and teachers can be fired, new policies created, bad policies removed, even parent influence can be addressed a lot easier then repairing a schools reputation. It takes a couple of years for a school to get back to a neutral public opinion, and in that mean time a lot of things become more difficult to do.

Admins I dont get, bad ones dont get better or go away, they just move to other schools. Poor (bad) fit only explains so much (differences in leadership style, philosophy on curriculum, etc). Yet no matter how bad they are they seem to stay in the system.

Personally, Im happy for sites like these, even though some day as our Dip principal put it, Ill have a review on here, because you only need to piss off one person before your clean record is broken.

From my POV on the other side of the desk, is that recruiters are always looking for an "edge" when it comes to hiring teachers. For all the technology and everything recruiting isnt really "fun" its a stressful process, and inherently adversarial. Sure heads say they like the chance to meet new people but I dont know any that wouldnt rather be doing something else or actually have something else to do. You would think that with so many teachers out there, the scales tip in favor of the recruiters, but the real pool of experienced IB teachers has been and continues to be relatively small.
So recrutirs are just looking for an advantage, and finising the bulk of your recruiting as early as possible is just the low hanging fruit approach to filling vacancies.

Would also make it difficult to accumulate a retirement, and would negate pretty much any retirement you would get.

If its described as "not a place to stay long", thats usually a pretty strong indicator that the school is actually a bad school.

Whats wrong with the Jersery Shore, its pretty nice in the summer if your in the area. not the best beach in the world, but attracts a pretty good looking group of people.

Im pretty close to Germany and havent heard anything about them. I usually keep my ears open about new schools in the area that might try poaching our teachers. Ill ask around we have several teachers from Germany here, one of them might have heard something.